TeLL mE sOmEtHiNg GoOd!
by coffeeandpie
Summary: A gorgeous and long awaited Carby moment! Will continue if there's a need.just let me know! Enjoy!:)


Carter sat staring at the phone. He was staring so hard he started to feel his eyeballs go fuzzy. Why didn't she call him? Was he really that far away, that disconnected from the friendship they had once shared that she couldn't call him now that she was struggling? He gazed at the TV. and then back at the phone, if I hadn't been such a hard ass on her earlier today she probably wouldn't groan when she answers my call. She talked to me so softly in her apartment when I caught her with that beer, and that's just it, she was caught!  
  
Like a guilty child she lowered her eyes and her voice to him when he asked her if she were settling in. Carter thought about the pain and tension in her voice, she knew that she was disappointing him and he didn't even have to say anything about the beer. It had taken some time but he was finally going to have that talk with her. The talk that the amazing Dr. Susan Lewis suggested to him was necessary. He bought a bouquet of dried flowers, remembering her tendency toward things sad and dark. That sentence stuck in his head now. Everything about her seemed sad and dark suddenly and he wanted to wrench this feeling from his heart.  
  
He picked up the phone and hit the number three on his speed dial. She was his sponsor after all he told himself, assuaging any guilty feeling he once had about the glee of programming her number into his phone. She was only a call away, and at night he couldn't help but think of that corny old song, "When I want you all I have to do is dream, dream, dream, dream." She was on his speed dial but he had only used that feature to call her on very selective occasions since their talk by the river. Suddenly he realized that the phone was ringing and someone could pick it up.  
  
"Hello?" she answered groggy  
  
"Abby, hi.."  
  
"Oh hey Carter." He could tell she was straining to keep her voice both calm and casual.  
  
"What are you doing?"  
  
"Not much, just some Marx brother's skits on AMC" she answered him unconcerned, with a bored tone.  
  
"Abby, can I come over to talk to you, I really don't feel like we got a chance to finish our conversation from earlier today."  
  
"What? Carter, please drop it, I told you it's no big deal."  
  
"Maybe not for you, maybe you don't think so.."  
  
"Oh! And you have something to say about it, about how my drinking affects you, you can be really arrogant sometimes Dr. Carter" She snorted at her own comment and he could tell she was losing her temper and growing rather defensive.  
  
He countered, "Abby I've been horribly self-involved over the past months and I just want to talk to you and make sure that you are okay."  
  
Her voice softened at this and she answered him, " John I told you already that I am fine. Please don't concern yourself with this it's not a big deal. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to get some beauty sleep," she started to laugh, "After all you did tell me I need it."  
  
With that she hung up on him before he could protest.  
  
With the dial tone still ringing in his ears he propelled himself up off of the bed and down the stairs into the living room, slinging his coat over his shoulder he left the house and headed toward his car. He arrived at her apartment building in less than 30 minutes. He felt a little apprehensive as he climbed the steps to her apartment building but he pushed himself further on. He stood in front of the buildings door and noticed it was left partially open. He entered the hallway and bounded up the steps toward her apartment. He looked at the door for a few moments and it became as fuzzy as the phone had earlier. What was it about her that made his vision all fuzzy like that? Sometimes he found he couldn't think straight if he thought seriously about her for more than a few moments. He shook his head quickly and rubbed both hands over his face and through his hair, as if he were getting her out of his system. He knocked on the door and waited. Nothing. He knew she was home. He didn't think she could be sleeping so quickly after they had just hung up less than a half hour ago. He knocked again, this time with a little more force. He waited and leaned up touching the door straining to hear any movement inside. Suddenly he heard a light rustling and he called out, "Abby?.."  
  
"Jesus! John is that you?!!" "What are you doing here? You scared me half to death."  
  
He could hear her unlocking the chains on her door and was startled to see her stricken face. "Oh god, Abby I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you I just wanted to talk, I didn't think about Brian at all" He cursed himself inwardly for being such an idiot. As she stepped aside to let him in the apartment sharp needles pricked his heart as he noted her cheeks glistening from past tears. She wouldn't make eye contact with him and stood there fiddling with her robe.  
  
"So what do you want Carter, I told you I was going to sleep."  
  
Still mortified at the situation John couldn't bring himself to think of what the hell he was doing there, he had scared the daylights out of her and didn't even realize it. He was being selfish and arrogant, not considering the fact that she was sleeping or would be frightened at some random knock on her door. "Abby, listen I should have called first,"  
  
He saw her shoulders droop and her mouth twist at the beginning of his speech. He followed her every movement as she walked through the room toward the couch. She curled up under a blanket and looked at him as he stumbled through speech. "Yeah, you should have called Carter, but you didn't, and now you're here, so what can I help you with so that you may sleep peacefully tonight. She jabbed at him with all of her contained terror biting the edges of her sentence.  
  
He looked down at his lap, at his hands hoping that something sensible would enter his mind. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye she was watching him her head tilted to one side, she seemed expectant, she seemed impatient. When he found the courage to look at her face to face, he saw something completely different what he had thought was impatience now looked to resemble hope. Was she waiting for this just as much as he was? He decided to take the plunge.  
  
"Abby I'm tired of being at odds with you, you mean too much to me to let things come to this."  
  
Abby looked stunned for a minute at his bold statement and then she asked him,  
  
"And what is this? Just what do you think we have come to?"  
  
"This awful place where we cannot talk to one another it feels like purgatory I can see you but I can't talk with you. To put it more bluntly it's hell."  
  
A small smile spread across her face and she closed her eyes for just a moment.  
  
"And I was just starting to get used to the temperature around here in hell," she quipped.  
  
He tossed her a sly grin, "Oh you were, were you?"  
  
"Yeah, "she laughed, "Yeah I was, but you're always turning things around and upside down for me. I think you've just done it again."  
  
"The one thing I hope to help you turn around is this drinking thing Abby, I think it really sucks." He hesitated with his words but pushed himself to continue. " You are my friend first you know, before any of the sponsor stuff, and only as a friend do I have to recommend and urge you to cut it out."  
  
Abby groaned and flopped over the pillow she had in her lap. "Why don't you just say that you think I'm a screw-up Carter? That I am ruining my life?"  
  
"Because I know you're not a screw-up, you are just going through a temporary relapse and I think the attack brought this on."  
  
"Oh is that what you think did it? You're going to have to guess again Dr. Carter. I've been drinking a little longer than that."  
  
She clapped her hand over her mouth and looked at him startled. She couldn't believe she had just said that to him. Now he looked as if she had slapped him.  
  
"Shit, Carter listen its not as bad as it sounds, and I haven't gotten drunk I'll just have a beer or two here and there. It's under control."  
  
"I can't believe you just said that, can you hear yourself? You have lost control, why can't you admit that Abby?"  
  
"Maybe because I don't see losing control as being such a bad thing after all." She snapped.  
  
"If you're trying to let go of something Abby, there are so many better ways that you could do that, ways that aren't self destructive, things that won't leave you with a throbbing headache the morning after."  
  
Abby stared at him then started to speak slowly, "Well when I wanted to let go you told me I wasn't ready, you told me that I was lying to myself."  
  
"What do you mean? When did I say that?"  
  
He looked truly puzzled and Abby snorted in realizing that he probably didn't even remember their conversation by the river. She picked her head up and turned her body toward him looking at him straight on.  
  
"I was waiting for something to happen with us, I was hoping something would happen, and when I finally let my guard down and decided to let you in, you told me that I was in denial, that I was still in love with Luka, that I was stuck on him. And you know John, I really wasn't, I hadn't had feelings for Luka for months before our breakup, because every moment I spent with him, all I could think of was what you told me by the river, about not wanting to be my friend. You laid it all out on the line there and told me that I should do something about it, because you weren't going to be waiting for me anymore, and when I did act, you told me it wasn't enough, you looked down upon my actions and didn't appreciate that I had tried to take control. Some good control did for me! You practically accused me of manipulating your feelings and using you because you wanted to be more than my friend, I started to realize some truth to what you said, and I didn't want to be that person, the type of person who could "control" another without even realizing it, I never wanted you to see me that way because I never did those things to hurt you."  
  
By the end of her confession Abby was breathless and scared to look at him. She looked around the room concentrating on anything she saw, trying to fight off the tears that she felt welling up in her eyes. He wasn't answering her; he just sat there stunned. He didn't look in her direction instead he stared at his fingers twiddling them every so often as if he were checking to see that he was still there.  
  
She was devastated and mortified by his reaction. He just sat there not responding, and she had opened up all of these wounds all over again for nothing. He didn't even look her way.  
  
"You better go now Carter, I need to go to sleep right now." She fought back tears and inadvertently released a pitiful sigh that she inwardly cursed herself for. She stood and walked over to the door quickly unlocking it and holding it open for him waiting for the moment she could be released of this embarrassment. She could hear the six-pack calling her name from the fridge it'd only be minutes now. "Now, Carter please, just go."  
  
He shook his head slightly and stood up quickly striding across the room toward to door. He still didn't meet her gaze but followed his own steps toward her doorway. When he reached it he glanced up at her resting her face against the door, she looked incredibly depressed and upset and devastatingly beautiful. He reached up above her and took the door from her grasp; he closed it slowly and left his hand on the door as he looked down at her. She still had her face and body pressed against the door, she was not looking at him. He talked quietly and asked her "Did you tell me everything you wanted to say, because if I leave here tonight right now I don't know that I will be strong enough to come back and go through this again Abby" She turned around to face him. She looked up at him, heat rising to her face. He was so close. She wanted to say so many things to him. He could see tears in her eyes, and sense the blush in her cheeks, her lips parted but no sound came out. He sighed audibly and his breath touched her. "Please, Abby. Tell me something good." His voice was deep, husky, wanting. Her heart was quick, beating, feverish. He waited for her, as he listened to her silence. Finally he reached down for the doorknob and started to turn it, pulling the door open. She stood there in the way until he made her move. Silently she pushed her body back and once again the door was closed. She made slight movements that were meant to alarm him. Her body shifted toward him and her hands went to both of his arms keeping him in place. She slowly moved her hands up his arms to his shoulders and then softly to his face. She looked at him unstoppable, unapologetic, as she memorized the depth of his dark eyes, the tip of his nose, and the curve of his lips. She memorized those lips. She looked into his eyes once more and kept eye contact with him until she pressed her lips passionately against his. Her eyes closed then and she could feel a tingling sensation fill every inch of her body, she felt him groan and his body shiver. It took him only seconds to reach out and touch her; he grabbed her to him and indulged himself in this heaven. He was breathless when he pulled away from her needing to see her beautiful face again before he was completely lost. Suddenly shy, Abby cast a downward glance and laughed nervously, asking him, "Did I tell you something good?"  
  
He could not resist her and felt his insides melt. He also couldn't answer her question and only tilted his head down to catch her lips up in his. He kissed her passionately pressing their bodies up against the door.  
  
  
  
  
  
"Tell me Something Good, Tell Me that You Love Me" 


End file.
